Allison: “We’ve acquired a lot of important data”

Sakhir, 24 February –Scuderia Ferrari’s path to the start of the 2014 Formula 1 season has now reached two thirds distance. Eight of the twelve test days available are now archived, but there is still a raft of things to understand and perfect given the host of changes this season. The Scuderia’s Technical Director, James Allison spoke to www.ferrari.com to sum up what was achieved in Bahrain. “We came to Sakhir aiming to work steadily through the huge list of actions that we must complete. We wanted to maximize track time, working methodically in order to be ready for Melbourne. I have to say that, with the exception of the morning of the third day, we did just that.”

The team has carried on with its technical programme and continued working on fine tuning all of the innovative elements of the F14T. “We worked on learning how to get the best from the 2014 clutch and on tuning the new brake by wire system” – continued Allison – “We looked in detail at balancing the temperature of all the cooling fluids, a key part of this year’s rules, and we began gradually expanding the operating window of the new Energy Recovery System. We have been able to start to open up our understanding of the handling characteristics of the car and to begin to learn what sort of setup parameters the tyres respond to. Continuing with this work will be an important part of the programme over the last four days here in Bahrain.”

It’s clear from Allison’s comments just how important reliability will be in 2014. Scuderia Ferrari has being working on this aspect of performance up until now and will continue to do so in the final test session, which will also feature some more demanding tests, as Allison goes on to explain. “For the last four days, our programme will see us attempt to operate the car ever more closely to the way that it will run in a race, providing invaluable practice for the drivers and subjecting the car and all its systems to the full rigor that it will need to withstand throughout the season.”

Testing resumes on Thursday 27 February and will run to Sunday 2 March. After that, the next time the cars will see a race track will be 14 March, for Friday practice at the Australian Grand Prix, when things start getting really serious.